I recall an intriguing cover of the Economist (November 14th-20th 2009) headlined “Brazil takes off”.
But do not bow to this striking metaphor. Firstly, think carefully about it: take-offs are always welcomed? Well, it will depend on how it is done.
Anyway, back to the point, the main question here is: What price taking off and hitting international headlines?
One of these setbacks is the very same which sustains the worldwide famous Brazilian biofueled paradise: slave labour.
Brazil is the largest producer of sugar cane ethanol on Earth and its boom has proven to be both economically and environmentally welcomed. The sugar cane-based fuel is 30 percent less expensive to produce than a corn-based variety coming from the US.
One acre of sugar cane can yield more than twice as much ethanol as an acre of corn. Environmentally speaking, in comparison to corn, sugar cane also looks quite desirable. Brazilian farmers produce less fossil fuels to convert sugar cane to alcohol than American farmers.
More, waste from sugar cane can be used to produce electricity and heat. As a result, the largest country in South America shunned emitting nearly 600 million tons of carbon between 1974 and 2004.
Ok that cane harvest is mechanizing rapidly and Lula’s government has been doing an exemplary job grappling with slave labour, but it still exists deep inside Brazil. And that is the principal responsible for all these impressing numbers and the top Brazilian position in this niche.
(Image by Bertolo)
Sugar cane workers endure hellish conditions
In 10 minutes each worker cuts 400 kg of sugar cane, makes 131 strokes with heavy knife and inflect ones torso 138 times. Besides it, there is another worrisome factor. When their protection equipments are worn under boiling temperatures, the workers lose nearly 8 liters of water a day.
From that, some researchers from Unesp (State University of São Paulo) concluded that the physical conditions of a sugar cane worker assimilate to the one of a marathon runner. They are usually crammed into tiny cubicles filled with rickety bunk beds.
The eternal search for larger productivity obliges each of the sugar cane workers to pick up to 15 tons a day. For all that effort, they start having serious health problems.
Most of the workers come from drought-plagued northeast and earn low wages (less than R$ 3 per ton!). The new cycle of sugar cane is imposing a routine to sugar cane workers which is comparable with the one of slaves. That is the flip-side of a sector that profits more than US$ 20 billions per year in my country.
Recent stats from the Brazilian Department for Work say 1,383 workers died between 2002 and 2006. According to the Brazilian Department of Social Security, in 2006 there were 14,332 work accidents at alcohol and sugar cane plants, while in civil engeneering there were 13,968. Just in three farms in the state of Alagoas (in the northeast of Brazil), were localized 656 sugar cane workers submitted to slave work conditions.
The burden we all bear
We can perceive an undeniable sparkle in Antônio Conceição dos Santos’s eyes, 25 years old, when he talks about his burning ambitions: “First of all, I want to buy a house. After that, I wanna buy the furniture”.
Later, he has plans to have a small business in his hometown of 67 thousand inhabitants, in the interior of the state of Maranhão. Money for all that he expects to come from his job as sugar cane worker in Guariba, on the surroundings of Ribeirão Preto (in the state of São Paulo), where there are the main alcohol plants in the country. In the harvest time, nearly 200 thousand people work in São Paulo’s sugar cane plantations. More than half of these people are from other states and they go there to try to make a living.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Although Brazil is getting down to change this reality, for those who insists on pointing the finger at Brazil – what is tremendously easy –, here you are (watch the video below!). Unfortunately, slave labour and slave-like conditions are rife around the world.
Very interesting Luan, I had no clue about this situation.
Luan, I don’t get why exactly do you think that hard working conditions are “price” of Brazil’s “taking off and hitting international headlines”? (I’m anxious to know as one of these headlines’ creator). It seems more like a result of international biofuel boom plus poor labour and social laws in Brazil.
In deed, slavery exists not oly in Brazil, but even inside the EU where it is managed by organized crime :( http://maladets.blogspot.com/2010/01/slavery-persists-in-africa-and-in.html
Luan, thanks for this. I just had a conversation about how exploitation is inevitable if profits are to be collected. Slavery in the US was particularly and primarily driven by material greed, by economic interests of landowning colonists.
I particularly liked the connection made in the video between the destruction of ecosystems and destruction of human rights. It’s a double sin.
Slavery have just changed form in Wsetern world and become ornagized crime connected with human trafficking.
Guys, thanks for the comments. Indeed, as a developing country, Brazil is an easy target to criticism, as well as some other countries in Asia and Africa. In the developed world, things are sometimes more veiled.
Keep your comments coming!
@Robert, personally, I’m one of those who would prefer Brazil not being a big player in several areas if such successes were based on some human rights violations. It is not just hard working conditions, it is slave-like. In this case specifically (biofuel), Brazil has only taken off due to slave work. All that my country has achieved may not be worth all the problems and difficulties it causes. That’s the price, the main drawback. Yeah, Brazil was encouraged to increase its sugar cane plantations as a result of the international biofuel boom. As headlines creators, we have to bare in mind all that.
Thanks, Luan, now I see your point more clearly.
Big Lie, Brasil is the same for the last 10 years, corruption is getting worse, education, still the same Shi*... the salary still the same shi*, house hold prices are too high, Taxes it are the highest on the world and impossible to make business there.. People buy a simple mobile fone paying monthly, like with everything. we don’t have even inter Train Lines in Brazil…it is a Shame Country…If you don’t live in here don’t even try to say how the Brazilian economy is….the only thing is that we are not going negative on the economy, if you see every year is always the same….
what is more, it is a old non understandable new from a good reputation magazine that i respect lot, but news is never 100 % high, and they always exaggerate things, they make a small thing to become Huge…so you know…i am from the best part of Brazil to talk about it…
Dear Andy, thank you for your comment.
Before anything else I must confess how delightful is to observe how nice and polite some people are in the internet: as nice as a pie. So far, I also must point out how gripping is for me to know that there still are extreme positions such as yours. It is always fun for free.
Second point, if you excuse me: I do live in Brazil…that’s why I tried to sketch a simple and quick, but not generalised, picture about a not so colourful aspect of our economy: slave labour. And I am astonished! It seems that you did not read my post. I did not exalt my country. I criticized it a lot. In fact, I am a big critic of my own country when it is necessary (most time…).
Although I understand your feelings and agree 100% that news is never 100% right, I would like you to comprehend that I made usage of it (the Economist healine)to talk about slavery in our century…in our so ‘civilized age’. Also, it is always important to bare in mind that extreme positions like that do not fit anymore. Brazil is horrible sometimes…but is very good at many things as well. A single label can not describe a country like ours.
For instance, do you think Germans and Americans like knowing (and are proud to know) that weapons from their factories are still used in many hot zones? Or that many French liked the way that France treated the gypsies? And the list goes on… Take a look at this: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15459224,00.html
It shows a flip side…the fault also remains with the dubbed ‘first world’... We must look on the bright side of Brazil (sure, always baring in mind the not so bright as well).
I hope and expect that you have understood me…
Cheers!